How Queen embarrassed Sir Steve

Sir Steve Redgrave took time out from a hectic Bermuda golfing schedule to reminisce with the Bermuda Sun over how he achieved his five Olympic gold medals — and the catchphrase that has followed him around since 1996.

Games great Redgrave stumbled from his Great Britain boat after winning rowing’s coxless pairs in Atlanta with Matthew Pinsent and uttered the now famous words “if you ever see me near a boat again you have my permission to shoot me”.

Thankfully, no-one did because in three months’ time he was back on the water preparing for the Sydney 2000 Games and what would turn out to be his fifth successive gold.

Redgrave, in Bermuda for the Hackers Cup between celebrities and journalists, which today moved to Port Royal, said he still has mixed feelings about saying that — especially when the Queen brought it up at a function at Buckingham Palace.

He told the Sun: “For a period of time there wasn’t a day that went by when I didn’t hear that statement coming back to me.”

So does he wish he never said it? “Yes and no. There’s a lot of entertainers on this trip and they tend to be more extrovert, they’re showmen.

“Sportspeople tend to be more introvert but if you’re an entertainer [you’d be happy] to come up with a strap line like that. 

“In some ways it’s nice that people remember. That was Atlanta in ‘96 and people still remember that now — it’s nice from that point of view.

“But I remember going to a reception at Buckingham Palace and we had a small lunch of about 12 guests with the Queen and Duke [of Edinburgh].

“I was diagonally across from the Queen and the Duke and as we went into the reception room for a coffee afterwards someone said it’s your turn to speak to the Queen.

“There was a small group around her and as they opened up, she looked up and said ‘you’re the one who said if anyone ever sees me near a boat again you have permission to shoot me’. The Queen of our country!

“I found that quite embarrassing in some ways but I suppose over the years it’s nice to be able to be remembered for what you did.”

Redgrave, though, admits he would never have been invited to Buckingham Palace if he hadn’t addressed a weakness early in his career. Amazingly for such a decorated Olympian — some say the greatest ever — from the sport of rowing, it was his ability to last a race.

He said: “My weakness was more the endurance side of the sport — and rowing is very much an endurance sport.

“I had the sheer power and the sheer speed but I couldn’t last the distance — I used to have a soggy bit in the middle.

“With some of the competitions in the UK I could blast off the start, get an early lead and have a rest. People used to catch me but I could blast past them at the end.

“You go international and I’d get up with these guys, then I’d have to have my little breather and they’d disappear — I’d try and make a burst at the end but they were too good to catch, so I had to change my training around and do more endurance work.”

Redgrave said his training then took a leaf out of the East Germans’ book, copying their ferocious intensity. 

“I took that intensity into the races because it was what we were used to doing and I think that was the leapfrog over people.

“They were at a more low-key, longer distance whereas I was doing the long distance but there was still an intensity to it and that seemed to be the difference.”

Sir Steve Redgrave is in Bermuda competing in the Hackers’ Cup, a golf tournament between celebrities and journalists. The event is sponsored by British Airways, Fairmont Southampton and the Bermuda Department of Tourism.